Saturday, May 31, 2014

"When people get too focused on redefining marriage, you're distracted from the bigger problem - fornicators and adulterers. If the people sitting in the pews are fornicators and adulterers, the church will destroy marriages much more quickly than those outside the church. When God's people mock marriage, God doesn't take that lightly."

"As progress spreads from State to State, as justice is delivered in the courtroom, and as more of our fellow Americans are treated with dignity and respect -- our Nation becomes not only more accepting, but more equal as well. During Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month, we celebrate victories that have affirmed freedom and fairness, and we recommit ourselves to completing the work that remains."Last year, supporters of equality celebrated the Supreme Court's decision to strike down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, a ruling which, at long last, gave loving, committed families the respect and legal protections they deserve. In keeping with this decision, my Administration is extending family and spousal benefits -- from immigration benefits to military family benefits -- to legally married same-sex couples."My Administration proudly stands alongside all those who fight for LGBT rights. Here at home, we have strengthened laws against violence toward LGBT Americans, taken action to prevent bullying and harassment, and prohibited discrimination in housing and hospitals. Despite this progress, LGBT workers in too many States can be fired just because of their sexual orientation or gender identity; I continue to call on the Congress to correct this injustice by passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And in the years ahead, we will remain dedicated to addressing health disparities within the LGBT community by implementing the Affordable Care Act and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy -- which focuses on improving care while decreasing HIV transmission rates among communities most at risk."Our commitment to advancing equality for the LGBT community extends far beyond our borders. In many places around the globe, LGBT people face persecution, arrest, or even state-sponsored execution. This is unacceptable. The United States calls on every nation to join us in defendingthe universal human rights of our LGBT brothers and sisters."This month, as we mark 45 years since the patrons of the Stonewall Inn defied an unjust policy and awakened a nascent movement, let us honor every brave leader who stood up, sat in, and came out, as well as the allies who supported them along the way. Following their example, let each of us speak for tolerance, justice, and dignity -- because if hearts and minds continue to change over time, laws will too. "NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2014 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people. "IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth." - Barack Obama.

These results are from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs poll, conducted May 8-11. Americans' views on this question have evolved over time. When Gallup first asked about the origins of same-sex orientation in 1977, over half of Americans (56%) attributed it to an individual's upbringing and environment, while 13% believed it to be something a gay person is born with.This gap in opinions narrowed over the time, and by 2001, Americans were more likely to believe in homosexuality as occurring at birth (40%) for the first time, though only by one percentage point. Since then, Americans have been roughly equally divided over this question, although with some year-to-year fluctuations in the precise percentages. Although this pattern appeared to be changing last year, when the belief that people are born gay rose to an all-time high of 47% after a slight increase in 2012, this year's slight downtick in the "born with" belief, halted the trend.The scientific community does not agree on one unified viewpoint regarding the issue of a person's sexual orientation. According to the American Psychological Association, "there is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation."

Since Harvey Milk has a stamp, I was wondering if Bayard Rustin could get on as well. His contributions to the Civil Rights Movement were paramount. I think it's safe to say that without him, there probably wouldn't be a civil rights march.

Besides, Bayard's journey and struggles as a Black gay man were real. He deserves a stamp!

TIME magazine has sent me this awesome cover and article featuring Laverne Cox.

Laverne tells TIME

"We are in a place now where more and more trans people want to come forward and say, ‘This is who I am.’ And more trans people are willing to tell their stories. More of us are living visibly and pursuing our dreams visibly, so people can say, ‘Oh yeah, I know someone who is trans.’ When people have points of reference that are humanizing, that demystifies difference.”

I told y'all about their last attempt to stop marriage in Oregon, hoping U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy to issue a stay on the decision.

Well, now he wants more information before ruling on NOM's request.

Here's more

Kennedy asked for briefs to be filed by 1 p.m. Monday from the parties in the two lawsuits that led to U.S. District Judge Michael McShane's May 19 ruling that allowed gays and lesbians to marry in Oregon.Kennedy, who hears emergency appeals from the region that includes Oregon, could issue a ruling on NOM's motion on its own or pass the issue on to the full court.At a minimum, Kennedy's action means that he wants more information on the case before he makes a decision. But it's hard to know whether NOM has a strong shot for its argument that the Supreme Court should get involved in the Oregon case because of its unusual nature.

Yesterday, NOM was slapped with a huge 50K+ fine by the Maine Ethics Commission. The group also voted to have the donors' list released. So finally, we will know where the money was coming from.

Well, you know NOM was hurt (oh well) and they took to their blog to whine about it:

"NOM vigorously denies that it violated any disclosure laws during the 2009 campaign opposing same-sex marriage. We worked with legal counsel to understand the law, and we followed that advice. The Commission staff has drawn improper inferences from the circumstances of the campaign environment that they wrongly interpret as meaning that if someone gave to NOM somehow they designated their gift to support the Maine campaign. However, we have submitted direct sworn statements from donors saying they had no such intention and any inference from the Commission staff to the contrary is false. We intend to appeal this decision in court because it is wrong as a matter of law and because the evidence supports our position, not that of the Commission staff. Moreover, we appear to be a victim of selective prosecution since major groups on the other side of this same campaign engaged in the same approach we did. In short, while we are disappointed in today's decision, we are not surprised by it and we will continue to resist the idea that somehow we failed to disclose donors to the Maine campaign. We disclosed our contributions to the Maine campaign committee, as Maine law requires. But we did not disclose our entire national donor list because those donors did not donate 'for the purpose of influencing' the Maine campaign, which is the trigger for reporting contributions that Maine law imposes."

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

When her friend Nelson Mandela passed away last year, Maya Angelou wrote that “No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again, and bring the dawn.” Today, Michelle and I join millions around the world in remembering one of the brightest lights of our time – a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman. Over the course of her remarkable life, Maya was many things – an author, poet, civil rights activist, playwright, actress, director, composer, singer and dancer. But above all, she was a storyteller – and her greatest stories were true. A childhood of suffering and abuse actually drove her to stop speaking – but the voice she found helped generations of Americans find their rainbow amidst the clouds, and inspired the rest of us to be our best selves. In fact, she inspired my own mother to name my sister Maya. Like so many others, Michelle and I will always cherish the time we were privileged to spend with Maya. With a kind word and a strong embrace, she had the ability to remind us that we are all God’s children; that we all have something to offer. And while Maya’s day may be done, we take comfort in knowing that her song will continue, “flung up to heaven” – and we celebrate the dawn that Maya Angelou helped bring.

Who is Sam Smith? Well, this talented guy has a strong soulful voice that has captured many by the heart strings. His first hit, Stay With Me was to die for and I became an instant fan. His latest video, Leave Your Lover is also a strong single, but raised questions about his sexuality. But now, he reveals the truth and the inspiration for his EP.

You sing a lot about love and relationships. What’s been your experience with love? I’ve never been in a relationship before. I’ve only been in unrequited relationships where people haven’t loved me back. I guess I’m a little bit attracted to that in a bad way. In the Lonely Hour is about a guy that I fell in love with last year, and he didn’t love me back. I think I’m over it now, but I was in a very dark place. I kept feeling lonely in the fact that I hadn’t felt love before. I’ve felt the bad things. And what’s a more powerful emotion: pain or happiness?Does he know he largely inspired the album? He does. I told him about it recently, and obviously it was never going to go the way I wanted it to go, because he doesn’t love me. But it was good as a form of closure, to get it off my chest and tell him. I feel better for it. I feel almost like I signed off this part of my life where I keep giving myself to guys who are never going to love me back. It feels good to have interviews like this, to chat about it and put stuff to bed. It’s all there now, and I can move on and hopefully find a guy who can love me the way I love him.

The character of blind superhero Matt Murdock/Daredevil most recently was played on the big screen by Ben Affleck. Blinded as a young boy but imbued with extraordinary senses, Matt Murdock fights against injustice by day as a lawyer, and by night as the super hero Daredevil in modern day Hell’s Kitchen.

“We are asking Justice Kennedy and the U.S. Supreme Court to take the step of staying the decision of Judge McShane so that NOM can pursue its request to intervene in the case in order to mount a defense of the people’s vote for marriage,” said John Eastman, NOM’s chairman and Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at The Claremont Institute. “This case is an ugly spectacle of the state refusing to defend the sovereign act of its voters to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman and instead working jointly with the plaintiffs to redefine marriage.”Oregon joins numerous other states in recent weeks where federal judges have overturned state laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and instead imposed same-sex marriage. In each of these cases, the court decision has been stayed by the trial judge or an appellate court. The U.S. Supreme Court itself ruled unanimously to stay a decision in Utah that invalidated their state marriage amendment.“The Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that it does not want a profound social change such as redefining marriage to be made by trial judges without the Supreme Court itself deciding the issue,” Eastman said. “In Oregon, not only do we have a single trial court judge imposing his own opinion and invalidating the votes of the overwhelming majority of Oregon voters, but the case involves the state Attorney General refusing to even mount a defense of the people’s decision. This should be very troubling to Justice Kennedy."

My main reason for wanting to win prom queen is to show the school, and hopefully the world, that if a spunky, odd gay kid can win prom queen, then anyone can! This message is mainly for transgendered people, because they seem to face so much backlash for simply being themselves. If I can win a title that is out of my gender, anyone else should be able to, including transgendered people.

I also want other LGBT youth that our main purpose in life is to make ourselves happy. Very often we conform to societal norms in order to be accepted, and it is not acceptable for us to shun a perfectly fine part of ourselves. We are the innovators of the future, we are the future and we can make a change.

A new study reveals that gay fathers' brain activity changes as they raise children. In fact, their brain activity resembles that of both new mothers and new fathers.

But what does that mean? Here's more:

The 48 gay fathers raising children with their husbands seemed to be both mom and dad, brain-wise. Their emotional circuits were as active as those of mothers and the interpretive circuits showed the same extra activity as that of heterosexual fathers'.Ideally, scientists would perform neuroimaging on men and women before and then after they became parents, to show definitely that any heightened activity followed junior's arrival and was not present before. Until they can do that, Feldman said, she is confident that the telltale brain activity results from parenting.One clue: in gay fathers, but not heterosexual ones, the brain also had extra communication lines between emotional and cognitive structures. The more time a man spent as primary caregiver, the greater the connectivity. It was as if playing both parental roles caused the brain to integrate the structures required for each."Fathers' brains are very plastic," Feldman said. "When there are two fathers, their brains must recruit both networks, the emotional and cognitive, for optimal parenting."

Monday, May 26, 2014

In middle school, I had a hard time figuring out whether I would survive playing both sides of the ball. I was focused on making good grades, not my sexual behavior. Darn good thing I had teachers and coaches that kept me focused – but I guess that’s not the case now. It seems our young kids are being recruited for something other than the science fair!Here we are sitting around thinking our kids are going to school to get an academic education, when in reality they’re just lab rats in an indoctrination test tube. The sustainable approach for the gay community — since reproduction requires outside assistance– is one of recruitment and indoctrination — right in our faces.School is about education, not indoctrination. It’s my responsibility as a parent to teach values and behavior to my children. It is because of foolishness like this that my girls attended faith-based schools.

"I have dreamed of performing at Carnegie Hall since I was 14 years old, when I was attending the Governor's School for the Arts in Norfolk, Virginia. It was there at the Governor's School, that I realized that if I practiced, and studied with the best, one day I could perform at Carnegie Hall.

And...

My first reaction to the news that our proposal was approved by Carnegie Hall was amazement. I couldn't believe that we got a yes! I started tearing up while telling my friends, because I thought of all the great artists who have crossed that stage. Many of them had enormous obstacles to overcome, like I do as a transgender person of color in America."

Tona's performance will feature music from her debut album "This Is Who I Am," a tribute to Black composers.

So yesterday, I posted the RuPaul "I love the word Tranny" statement from the WTF With Marc Maron Podcast.

For some reason, he believes he has the all out right to remix the slur. Anywho, that stupid statement has put Logo TV in an interesting spot. After that podcast hit the waves, the network distanced themselves from RuPaul with their own statement.

Friday, May 23, 2014

On WTF with Marc Maron, RuPaul talked about his views on using the word 'Tranny'. It's safe to say, he still doesn't get it.

Ru said:

"Does the word ‘tranny’ bother me? No. I love the word ‘tranny.’ … It’s not the transexual community who’s saying that. These are fringe people who are looking for storylines to strengthen their identity as victims. That is what we are dealing with. It’s not the trans community. ‘Cause most people who are trans have been through hell and high water… But some people haven’t and they’ve used their victimhood to create a situation where, ‘No! You look at me! I want you to see me the way you’re supposed to see me!’ You know, if your idea of happiness has to do with someone else changing what they say, what they do, you are in for a fucking hard-ass road… I dance to the beat of a different drummer. I believe everybody — you can be whatever the hell you wanna be, I ain’t stopping you. But don’t you dare tell me what I can do or what I can’t — say or can’t do. It’s just words, like, ‘Yeah, you hurt me!’ Bitch, you need to get stronger. If you’re upset by something I said you have bigger problems than you think.”

Sorry, Ru. You're in no place to tell a Transgender person to accept slurs and move on. No, that's like a White person telling me to accept being called a Nigger.

On NOM's blog, Heritage Foundation's lackey Ryan T. Anderson speaks about the changing times and fighting against same-sex marriage.

Here's a piece of his post:

So, the question is, where do we go from here? How do we best advance the cause of marriage as the union of a man and woman, husband and wife, father and mother?Some say we should abandon the defense of marriage and retreat to only protecting religious-liberty exemptions. They argue that this is the best course of action in light of what they take to be an inevitable defeat. Others go further and suggest that we should simply disengage with politics entirely, retreat to our own communities, and rebuild a marriage subculture there.As tempting as these plans may be, they aren't the right answer.We must continue to witness to the truth about marriage, find new ways to make the reasoned case about what marriage is, and work to protect our freedoms to do so for the next generation. All of this must be done in service of the long-term goal of restoring a culture of marriage.This requires both political and cultural efforts. Those who emphasize religious-liberty protections are somewhat right, for to even have the freedom to build countercultural institutions that preserve the truth about marriage we will at the very least need to protect the liberty — including religious liberty — to do so. But they are wrong in thinking we can protect religious liberty without defending the substantive view we seek the liberty to hold and act on. In order to protect our liberty with respect to marriage, we must persuade our neighbors that our views about marriage are reasonable, and thus that our rights to govern our lives in accord with those views should be respected.

Last week, we learned that Michael Egan, the guy who's suing Director Bryan Singer for sexual abuse, said in a sworn deposition that he has never been to Hawaii. However, in his sexual abuse claim, he said he did.

With that mishap on file and noted in public, Bryan has filed a motion to dismiss the case lack of jurisdiction.

The filing comes less than a week after defendant David Neuman filed a similar motion – one that also cited a separate 2003 statement in which Egan said he’d “never had any kind of physical contact” with Neuman other than non-sexual social contact and that Neuman “never acted improperly.” Neuman also included declarations from numerous witnesses stating that he was not on the two 1999 Hawaii trips during which Egan alleges he was abused.In another passage, Egan says in reference to “this thing that happened to you” that no one other than the 2000 defendants had been “partaking in all this stuff.”The 2014 lawsuits, filed in Hawaii federal court against Singer, Neuman and two others – Garth Ancier and Gary Goddard – cover much the same time period and some of the same geography as the 2000 suit, yet the prior suit did not name the 2014 defendants.Egan’s current counsel, Jeff Herman, has never offered an explanation of the omission despite publicly promising to obtain one. Nor has Egan’s counsel in the 2000 suit, who represented him as recently as 2011, provided any explanation as to why the 2000 suit didn’t name the four men whom Egan sued last month. Indeed, Neuman, like the 2000 defendants, was a top DEN executive.

"They were mad at me…You say, why’d they get mad at you? Cuz instead of acknowledging their sin, like you had better do, they railed against me for giving them the truth about their sins. Don’t deceive yourselves. You want the verse? The news media didn’t even know it was a verse! They thought I was just mouthing off. Is homosexual behavior a sin? The guy asked me. I said, ‘do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?’ Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor the idolators nor adulterers nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

The White House Office of Public Engagement, the United States Postal Service and the Harvey Milk Foundation will host a dedication ceremony for the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp at the White House.

The event will feature remarks by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Representative John Lewis, Deputy Postmaster General Ronald A. Stroman, and other distinguished guests including the Co-Founders of the Harvey Milk Foundation, Stuart Milk and Anne Kronenberg.

Watch live starting at 3:00 p.m. East Coast time at whitehouse.gov/live. Use this link to stream the ceremony

"Governor Corbett's refusal to appeal this ruling completes the disenfranchisement of the people of Pennsylvania. For years they have been denied the right to vote on marriage. Now Governor Corbett has communicated to citizens of Pennsylvanians who have been fighting to be heard on this issue that he will join the ranks of the political elites unwilling to listen. Accordingly, Pennsylvania's voters must show Governor Corbett that he will be held accountable."

“I have thoroughly reviewed Judge Jones’ opinion in the Whitewood case. Given the high legal threshold set forth by Judge Jones in this case, the case is extremely unlikely to succeed on appeal. Therefore, after review of the opinion and on the advice of my Commonwealth legal team, I have decided not to appeal Judge Jones’ decision.

“As a Roman Catholic, the traditional teaching of my faith has not w​​avered. I continue to maintain the belief that marriage is between one man and one woman. My duties as Governor require that I follow the laws as interpreted by the Courts and make a judgment as to the likelihood of a successful appeal.

"Throughout the debate on this important and meaningful issue, I have maintained that Commonwealth officials and agencies would follow the provisions of Pennsylvania’s marriage law unless or until a court says otherwise. The court has spoken, and I will ensure that my administration follows the provisions of Judge Jones’ order with respect for all parties.

“It is my hope that as the important issue of same-sex relationships continues to be addressed in our society, that all involved be treated with respect.”

The NBA has charged Donald Sterling with damaging the league and its teams with his insensitive and racist comments. His hearing will be on June 3, where other owners can vote to terminate his ownership of the LA Clippers.

The league also mentioned that Donald's other acts of foolishness has damaged the relationship with fans and merchandising partners.

Hopefully, he and his crazy wife will lose the team. But he will be alright, he'll just build more racially fuel condos and building.

Thanks to U.S. District Judge John Jones, gay marriage is legal in Pennsylvania! He knew what was up and struck down the gay marriage ban.

This judge is awesome and who do we thank for putting Judge John in the role... Rick Santorum.

Yes, kiddos! Over 10 years ago, Rick was all about John. In fact, he urged the Senate to confirm John.

Back then, Rick said:

“Since the onset of the war against terrorism, our federal judiciary has taken on an even higher level of importance, and it is imperative that we provide our courts with the resources necessary to enforce the rule of law. These judgeships are vital to our national security goals, and I urge my colleagues to work with the President to fill these vacancies in a timely manner."

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

"Pennsylvania voters have long sought, and been denied, the right to vote on the issue of marriage. This ruling adds insult to injury, as it leaves the citizens of Pennsylvania doubly disenfranchised. Members of the Pennsylvania legislature have been actively working for years to put this matter to the voters, which makes Judge Jones' cavalier decision even more brazen and unjust. The ruling unilaterally makes an end-run around the democratic process and places the capricious will of one man above the desires of millions of citizens. We know from the stay granted in the case in Utah that the Supreme Court believes these matters should be thoroughly debated and legally argued, and that there is nothing ‘inevitable' about marriage redefinition. The administration owes it to the people of Pennsylvania to pursue this matter vigorously through the court system, and give marriage the defense it requires and deserves. This is especially true in Pennsylvania, where the people have already seen the insult of the Attorney General abandoning her oath of office and refusing to defend marriage. The administration stepped in to right that wrong in this case, and we urge them to continue to render justice by providing a defense of Pennsylvania's marriage laws."

Matt Barber’s website BarbWire writer, Lee Duigon is losing his marbles over his hate for us. In his latest piece, he created a new religion called “Gaydeology.”

Nevertheless, this very new notion that all sexual behavior is permitted, and that homosexuality and transgenderism (or whatever you want to call it) are especially worthy of esteem–this perverse and evil code has swept the Western world and carried off its ruling class, its pseudointelligentsia, its culture-shapers, and all those people willing to be shaped by culture.

This has happened with terrifying speed. The world has seen nothing like it since the rise of Islam–and we all know what a great blessing that turned out to be.

Will we be stuck with this for the next 1,500 years? Or will it wither up and blow away as suddenly as it descended on us? God grant the latter.

In the meantime, what I have come to call “Gaydeology” has all the earmarks of a new false religion, as fierce and intolerant as Islam; and we have not yet seen the worst of it.

“With the success of LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT and ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, giving Wonder Woman her own digital anthology series makes perfect sense. With this series creators can dream up unique takes on the Amazon Princess to give fans a new adventure every week. We’re very excited about the line-up, and readers won’t want to miss the sensational action-packed Wonder Woman stories we have planned for the coming weeks and beyond.”

They still believe they can stop gay marriage. Today they filed a Stay Appeal and a Stay Demand with Ninth Circuit Court in Oregon. Their winning streak in intervening has been on a big losing streak. I guess they believe they are doing the work of Freedom and Moral rights.

While they're meddling in Oregon's business, they may have to pay $50,000 for failing to register and disclose its activities in Maine’s 2009 gay marriage referendum.

The Stuff

Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.